Beatitude House began its  20th Anniversary Celebration with a Mass with the Ursuline Sisters and members of its Board of Directors – current and past – on Sunday January 23, 2011 at the Ursuline Motherhouse.  Fr. Richard Brobst presided at liturgy while Sister Patricia McNicholas recalled the origins of Beatitude House in her reflection.

The story of the beginning of Beatitude House is a lesson in communal discernment for ministry in the lives of Ursuline Sisters today.  Sister Margaret Scheetz – Peg, who died in January 2001, was pursuing an advanced degree in computer education at Kent State University in the late 1980s.  One day she watched a TV show about a homeless woman and her struggles to keep her family together.  That show sparked an idea – could the Ursulines do something for homeless women in Youngstown?

Sr. Margaret shared her idea with Sr. Nancy Dawson, General Superior and Sr. Mary O’Leary.  Both responded enthusiastically and Peg began immediately:  looking for a house and a neighborhood, seeking donations, and seeking workers who could help turn an old house into new apartments for homeless women and their dependent children. 

Throughout the of the process of bringing an idea into reality, Peg consulted with the community and counted on their prayers for success.  Lots of the sisters helped with things like cleaning or gathering donations from friends and family. 

What began as an idea of a single sister turned into 4 apartments for homeless families, and then 8.   Check out the video to get all the details of the numbers of women and children whose lives have been changed by their time at Beatitude House.

This is an example of how nuns get things done.  First, a sister has an idea to work for the people of God.  Second, she shares it with her friends and the leadership of the community.  With their approval and support the sister can work to bring that idea into reality.

Seeds of the Ursuline Charism were planted in Matamoros Mexico in 1997 when five Ursuline Sisters arrived in Brownsville, Texas to serve at the Border. Sisters Maria Teresa DeLlano (Roman Union Central), Michelle Guerin (Roman Union East), Elizabeth Miller (Ursulines of Chatham), Gia Mudd (Maple Mount), and Norma Raupple (Youngstown) gathered in order to live among the people and offer service. Within the first year there were women who were attracted to the spirit and vision of St. Angeal Merici. They soon began a process to become Ursuline Associates. Silvia Alonso was one of these women. Silvia came with a friend to the house where the Sisters lived to participate in “Via Cruces” during Lent of 2000.

In 2006 Sister Norma and four Associates made a pilgrimage to Italy sponsored by two Ursulines from Brown County. The highlight of the trip was spending time with two members of the Company of Angela known as “The Secular Institute of St. Ursula”. Through research of Mary Cabrini Durkin, we were connected with Mirella Turri, the Director of the Company in Trent, who speaks Spanish. Mirella spent the afternoon with us giving us an orientation to the original model of Angela’s Company. This was the beginning of Silvia’s discernment to learn more about the Company. Eventually the Company in Trent, Italy, discerned that they would give birth to a new Company in Mexico.This would be the first in a Spanish-Speaking Country among the International Federation of Secular Institutes.

Silvia began the formation process three years ago. Silvia has become accustomed to living her new way of life which is similar to religious life. She has been in dialog with Mirella each month and has reflected with Sister Josefina Granada from Iguala, Mexico,regularly. She visits the Mexican Ursulines for community gatherings and retreats in Puebla. Sister Miriam Fidelis from the Cleveland Ursulnes and the Associates in Brownsville also support Silvia. Since she retired after 28 years of teaching, she has dedicated herself to evangelization, religious education and pastoral ministry. She serves in “Los Pinos”, a very poor area where the people are trying to build a small church in their colonia. Silvia’s mother , Santos, who is also an Ursuline Associate, lives with her.Their home is the gathering place for immediate and extended family where all find a place of welcome and love.

Silvia made her vows of poverty,chastity and obedience on November 25, 2010. This is the day that St. Angela officially started the first Company in Brescia, Italy in 1535. At this time the women did not live together in convents but gathered for prayer and support. This original model is the model of the members of the Federation which Silvia has become a part of. Mirella and two other members from Trent, Italy, the priest from the diocese of Matamoros, Silvia’s family and two Associates witnessed her profession of vows.

My sister always sits sideways in her chair during meals. Whether the table is surrounded by family members or invited guests, she is poised for action. She jumps up if she’s forgotten something in the kitchen, if someone wants steak sauce rather than the ketchup that is on the table, or if it is time to pass the serving dishes around again. My sister seldom relaxes enough to enjoy the food and conversation.

There is biblical precedent for that instinct and posture in the account of Jesus’ visit to the home of two sisters, Mary and Martha. Martha offers immediate hospitality, welcoming Jesus and then busying herself with meal preparation, while Mary sits down with Jesus. One can imagine how the clatter of dishes in the kitchen grows steadily louder until Martha’s exasperation at working alone is audible to Mary, who is engrossed in what Jesus is saying. Who is to say that passive-aggressive behavior didn’t exist in New Testament households?

Finally Martha can’t bear working alone any more and comes to where Jesus and her sister are talking. Pulled in all directions by a dozen tasks, she can no longer contain her frustration. She confronts the guest himself, challenging his care for her and asking him to send Mary into the kitchen. In an astounding breach of etiquette, Martha embarrasses her sister, and her Lord and no doubt herself as well.

Jesus doesn’t mince words in his response. Calling her by name not just once but twice, in a manner that sounds more like a parent than a friend, he describes the situation. Jesus says: “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it — it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.”

Perhaps the words “main course” for “better part”  can help this well-worn story be heard in fresh ways. A woman in the parish where I serve commented that she never likes hearing this text preached because she always comes away with the sense that it’s never possible to get things right. If, like Martha, she works hard, she will be labeled “overfunctioning.” If, like Mary, she sits and listens too long, nothing gets done. Giuseppe Belli’s 19th-century sonnet “Martha and Magdalene” ends with Martha snapping back at Jesus when he tells her that Mary’s choice is more important: “So says you, but I know better. Listen, if I sat around on my salvation the way she does, who’d keep this house together?” (Divine inspiration: The Life of Jesus in World Poetry).

Thinking of God’s word as the “main course” in the feast of life, however, doesn’t give that immediate sense that listening is better than doing. Rather, it places these activities in balance. Whereas the world reminds us to keep the “main thing the main thing,” Christians are urged to remember that the main course is just that, the main course. Jesus is the host, not Martha or Mary or anyone of us, and he spreads the word like a banquet to nourish and strengthen us. The word has within it commands both to sit and listen, and to go and do. We “sit on our salvation,” as the sonnet has it, but then scatter into the world and work of daily life.

Living this side of Easter, we know what Mary and Martha could not know: that hearing and doing are finally in the realm not of law, but of gospel — because the host of the banquet has himself become the main course.

The good news is that Jesus the host grants permission for all distracted, frantic people to sit down and eat their fill of word and promise. When we join them and nourish ourselves at the table, we’ll be ready to put hands and feet, hearts and minds to work.

The chapel at the Ursuline Motherhouse was full on January 27th, the feast of St. Angela Merici, our Founder.    I was thrilled to hear and see our Nuns and Associates warmly greeting each other.  This is the day each year that we welcome our new Associates and this year we welcomed four women and two men.  This year also marks 475 years since St. Angela met with a group of women in Brescia, Italy and formed the first  “Company of St. Ursula”.

Fr Mike Garvey, Dan Eicher, Maureen Russo, Joan Subler - front: Peggy Eicher, Jean DiVincenzo

Laura Kotheimer  and Michelina Biasella, two Associates, were the musicians who opened the liturgy with “We Are Many Parts”.   Father Michael Garvey was the presider.  Mike also became an Associate this year.  Sister Patricia McNicholas proclaimed the Scripture:   “… put your gifts at the service on one another… (1Peter 4:8)  Sister Nancy Dawson reflected on the Gospel of Mark.  In Mark 9 the disciples had been arguing about who was the most important.  Jesus  puts his arms around a child and continues talking to them about welcoming children.   Sister Nancy challenged us to be child-like in our service.   As we left the chapel on our way to enjoying a meal together we sang “Companions on the Journey” we grateful and joyful hearts.